Items Vol. 31 No. 3 (1977)

SOCIAL

SCIENCE

RESEARCH

COUNCIL

VOLUME 31 . NUMBER 3 . SEPTEMBER 1977 605 THIRD AVENUE . NEW YORK, N.Y. 10016

The Relevance of China's Development Experience for Other Developing Countries

by Robert F. Dernberger "" THE PAPERS PRESENTED at a Council conference on the relevance of China's development experience for the other developing countries 1 provide the beginning of an attempt to integrate the study of China's economic de· velopment experience within the mainstream of Western analyses of economic development throughout the Third World. The papers, of course, are only a beginning: organized within the constraints of a conference format with individual topics assigned to individual authors, they leave many gaps. Nonetheless, they were com mis• The author. who organized and chaired the conference described in this article. is professor of economics and a member of the Center for Chinese Studies. University of Michiga~. He is a member of the Subcommittee on Research on the Chinese E~onomy of the Joint Committee on Contemporary China of the Council altd the American Council of Learned Societies. which sponsored ' the conference. In addition to Mr. Dernberger. the participants at this conference were John Bresnan. Ford Foundation; HoUis B. Chenery. World Bank; Audrey Donnithorne. The Australian National University; Alexander Eckstein. University of Michigan; Albert Feuenverker. Unh-ersity of Michigan; John G. Gurley. Stanford University; Teh-wei Hu. Pennsylvania State University; Shigeru Ishikawa. Hitotsubashi University; James Kilpatrick. WaShington. D.C.; Nicholas R. Lardy. Yale University; Dwight H. Perkins. Han-ard University; Thomas G. Rawski.

University of Toronto; Carl Riskin. Queens College. City University of New York; Michael Roemer. Harvard University; Charles 'Robert Roll.

Jr .• The Rand Corporation (Santa Monica. California); Peter Schran.

University of Illinois; Dudley Seers, University of Sussex; Amartya Sen, London School of Economics; Subramanian Swamy, Member of Parliament, India; Peter C. Timmer, Stanford University; Benjamin 'Vard, UniversilY of California, Berkeley: Thomas E. Weisskopf, Unh'ersity of Michigan: and Kung-chia Yeh, The Rand Corporation (Santa Monica, California): staff, Patrick G. Maddox.

The conference was held on January 31 through February 2, 1976. and was supported by funds made available by the Ford Foundation for the program of the Joint Committee on Contemporary China. The papers prepared for the conference are being edited by its chairman for publication. A concluding chapter to be written by the editor, based

sioned in the firm belief that, given the present state of our knowledge, the combined and focused efforts of economic development specialists and scholars who specialize in research on China's economy would lea<!- to a more meaningful contribution than could be produced by a single researcher from within either of these two groups.

Any attempt to understand the relevance of China's experience to the development problems of the other partly on the material in the preceding chapters, will directly address the question implied in the title of the conference. This article is based on excerpts from the introduction to the forthcoming conference volume: space limitations restrict its content almost entirely to those sections which summarize the content of the papers presented at the conference.

1 The original title of the conference was "The Lessons of China's Development Experience for the Developing Countries." One accomplishment of the conference was to convince the editor of the need to appreciate the successes, needs, and objeclives of other developing countries, which the bias of his own research interests and the accomplishments of China's economic development experience had made obscure, before reaching any conclusions as to who should and/or could learn what from whom. Hence, the new title.

CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE 25

The Relerance of China's Development Experience for Other Developing CountriesRobert F. Dernberger

34 The Study of South Asian Conceptual Systems -StanleJ J- Heginbotham 36

Fellowships and Grants

37

New Publications

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developing countries can best begin with the specification of the development problems shared by those countries, the types of programs they have implemented in the attempt to solve those problems, and the success they have achieved in their solution. The first session of the conference was devoted to two aspects of that attempt to achieve such a specification.

and political structure as one of the most important variables in the development process. Furthermore, each of these three modifications in the traditional analysis of this process-objectives, measurement, .and obst~c1~s -improves the prospect for the incorporatIOn of C?ma s development experience into a framework that IS .analytically comparable with that of other developmg countries.

A single indicator of economic development The examples of India, Pakistan, and Indonesia In his paper on "Economic Development: Objectives Thomas E. Weisskopf's "Patterns of Economic Develand Obstacles," Amartya Sen holds that the most comopment in India, Pakistan, and Indonesia," turns dimonly used indicators for quantifying economic develrectly to an examination of the empirical record of the opment in the developing countries-the level and ra~e results of development efforts in an attempt to deterof growth of per capita GNP-fail to reflect the baSIC mine the extent to which non-Chinese approaches have objectives of economic development. Furthermore, they been successful in achieving their objectives. Weisskopf have corrupted our view of the economic development also seeks to explain the differences among the results process so as to cause us to lose sight of the more. im!'orof the development efforts of these three countries. Altant obstacles to the achievem!!nt of those obJectives. though he does not explicitly compare the rec~rd ~f Sen argues that these objectives should be derived from these countries with that of China, that companson IS the common interests and aspirations of the people of implicit in his discussion because of the success indithe Third World. He recognizes that many of the basic cators presented and the record of the particular counobjectives he identifies are difficult to quantify, but .he tries he selects as representative of the non-Chinese apsuggests a means of tying together in a single success Inproach. . dicator those related to the size, distribution, and exTo explain the difference between the results achIeved pected duration of per capita income, the prevalence of by these countries as a whole and by China, W~issko.pf poverty, and the frequency of disasters. points to the significant differences between theIr. socIal A single indicator such as that suggested by Sen oband political structures and the absence of revolutlOnary viously allows for a more meaningful comparison of changes in the non-Chinese Asian countries after World economic growth among the countries of the Third War II. Weisskopf also describes other characteristics World, including China, than an "unadjusted" measure which the three non-Chinese Asian countries share. All of growth in per capita GNP. More important-because three-again unlike China-are former colonies that it is much more indicative of the true objectives of ecogained their independence following World War II and nomic development-Sen's proposed success indicator all have a mixed capitalist economic system with extenmakes more evident the obstacles to the achievement of sive rights of private property. Although they have enthose objectives. These include the traditional obstacles countered different problems and achieved different dewhich have been identified in the existing literature on grees of success in the development of national integraeconomic development. Sen's proposed success indicator tion and parliamentary democracy, they also share co~足 also draws attention to what he believes is the obstacle mon political institutions. Finally, all three countnes that is central to the problem of economic development contain considerable ethnic heterogeneity. Given these in the Third World: the need for the resolution of concommon characteristics, Weisskopf believes, as did flicts among the different interest groups within these Myrdal in his study of the countries of South Asia,2 that societies. any differences in the results of their development .efforts Thus, Sen's redefinition of the objectives of economic can be traced to differences in their social, economIC, and development so as to make them common to all the political institutions and policies. developing countries, his suggested means for measurWeisskopf selects several different and separate te~ts ing the achievement of those objectives so as to allow for measuring the success of the development efforts m for a more meaningful comparison of the results both these three countries: the growth of total, sectoral, and among countries and within a single country over per capita output; quantitative measures of food contime, and his identification of the major obstacle to the achievement of those objectives all identify the social 2 Gunnar Myrda1. A.sian Drama (New York: Pantheon. 1968).

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sumption and of expenditures for health and educational services; the distribution of income and level of unemployment; measures of the extent of self-reliance; and the extent to which these countries have been successful in extending the scope of democratic processes and individual civil liberties. No attempt is made to give weights to these various measures or to combine them into a single index or success indicator, as suggested by Sen. Quantitative measures for the last success indicator, of course, depend on the intuitive and subjective judgments of the author, but the empirical evidence for the other indicators does bear out Weisskopf's argument that, for the period as a whole, the results for all three countries are remarkably similar. They are also rather disappointing.

When broken down into two subperiods, however, significant differences become readily discernable. In terms of growth rates, India's record is similar in both the 1950s and the 1960s, but-compared to India's record-Pakistan has a poorer record in the pre-Ayub Kahn period and better in the Ayub Kahn period. Similarly, Indonesia's record is poorer in the pre-Suharto period, better in the Suharto period. By organizing the evidence according to these periods, Weisskopf again emphasizes differences in social and political environments as possible explanations for differences in the results.

Recognizing the relatively small size of his sample and the possibility of alternative explanations, Weisskopf draws the following conclusions: (I) Higher growth rates in the nonrevolutionary societies are directly related to "authoritarian" governments which assign a high priority to growth among the various objectives of development. .

(2) Compared with the more "democratic" regimes, these "authoritarian" governments have a greater preference for liberal, i.e., free-market and internationalist, as against interventionist, economic policies.

(3) These policies lead to higher growth rates because higher growth rates in the nonrevolutionary societies are directly related to capital inflows.

According to Weisskopf, these conclusions are mutually interdependent and the concluding arguments in his paper make it clear that his analyses suggest a fourth hypothesis. The growth records of the "authoritarian" nonrevolutionary regimes in his sample are only favorable when compared to the democratic regimes in the sample; they are poorer than those of China. Furthermore, this relatively favorable record applies to growth rates alone; the record of the other success indicators in the "authoritarian" nonrevolutionary regimes is as poor as that of their more "democratic" counterparts. This SEPTEMBER

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leads to a fjfth tentative hypothesis, which questions the long-run viability of "democratic" capitalism inasmuch as it would appear, because of its absence in the countries examined by Weisskopf, that a revolutionary transformation of the social and political structures in these countries is a prerequisite for the realization of many of the social or nonquantitative objectives of economic development.

Soviet and Chinese models Weisskopf's arguments emphasize how and why differences in social and political environments may explain differences in economic performance both among the countries of the non-Communist Third World and between these countries and China. Much more obvious and direct in its effect on the economic results obtained is a country's economic system. Any attempt to explain differences in China's economic performance over the past 25 years, compared with that of the other developing countries, must begin with an account of the economic institutions and policies which make up China's economic system, i.e., the Chinese model. This is the purpose of "The Chinese Approach to Economic Development," by Benjamin Ward.

In the 1950s, the Chinese readily admitted the extent to which they were borrowing Soviet economic institutions and administrative procedures and China's economic system was considered to be another example of a Soviet-type economy. Chinese publicity concerning the unique and indigenous innovations being made in their economic system after the 1950s led Western specialists and observers to flesh out the major features of what was considered to be a new or alternative Chinese economic system or model. Ward believes we should reconsider our judgments concerning those developments in China's economic system after the 1950s and he argues, despite some important unique Chinese modifications, that China's economic system and development policies continue to exemplify, or are at least close relatives of, a Soviet-type economy. Ward believes this categorization of China's economic system is an appropriate means for distinguishing and highlighting the major differences between China and most other developing countries.

The term "Soviet-type economy" is used by Ward as an abstraction of the important common features of the economic institutions and policies in at least seven other communist countries. Ward believes there are four fundamental economic, institutional, and policy characteristics which are shared by each of these countries 27

and which are the essential conditions for being classifield as a Soviet-type economy: (1) nationalization of the means of production in industry; (2) the collectivization of agriculture; (3) the mobilization of the state and population by means of a Leninist party; and (4) a "big push" industrialization effort as a central economic policy objective. China's economic system over the past two decades has continuously met these four qualifications.

To support this conclusion, Ward devotes the major portion of his discussion to an examination of the fundamental and analytically meaningful differences between Soviet-type economies and the capitalist economies in regard to "big push" growth strategies, autarkic development policies, egalitarianism, collectivized agriculture, and the use of teleological instruments for obtaining economic growth. Ward presents arguments to show the considerable extent to which China's experience is similar to that of the other Soviet-type economies.

Based largely on what we have learned from our路analyses of how the Soviet-type economic system works, Ward concludes his paper with an evaluation of the possibility of transferring China's development experience to the other developing countries and a discussion路 of the possible long-run effects of the Soviet-type economic system on China's economic development. The question of the feasibility of a socialist revolution in the nonsocialist countries is set aside for others to investigate and his evaluation of the possibilities for transferring China's development experience to the other developing countries is based on his analysis of the forces favoring such a transfer. Ward believes that the presently developing countries have much larger populations, much higher rates of population growth, and much more severe problems of poverty than the presently developed countries had at a similar stage in their development. This situation causes the developing countries to seek deliberate solutions to their development problems, including the possibility of adopting alternative economic systems. In this regard, the Soviet-type economic system has a distinct comparative advantage over the traditional capitalist model when its high costs and risks are compared to the control over the development process maintained by the government and the government's ability to adopt appropriate policies to achieve high priority objectives and ameliorate the worst social effects of rapid economic growth. Furthermore, the material results achieved in the developing countries thus far would also appear to favor a Soviet-type economy. These arguments, "Vard believes, provide a very strong appeal for the spread of a Soviet-type economic system to the other 28

developing countries. More important, Ward also believes that the Chinese variant of the Soviet-type economy model may be of even greater interest to these other developing countries because the Chinese have modified the model to avoid some of its undesirable and costly shortcomings and to meet their particular needs.

Against these arguments for the comparative advantages of the Soviet-type economy in the short-run, developments in the socialist economies over the past decade or so and in China during the past few years lead Ward to question its long-run viability for the attainment of both the economic and social goals of socialism. On the one hand, the Soviet-type economies have a tendency to remain relatively isolated from the rapid pace of scientific and technological developments in the rest of the world, presenting them in the longrun with a serious constraint on their continued rapid economic growth. On the other hand, economic growth depends on modern technology, regardless of its source, and the workings of the "technological imperatives," according to Ward, appear to be eroding many of the social objectives of the Soviet-type economies.

ReasoDs for the Chinese success The presentation and evaluation of the empirical estimates of developmen t efforts in China since 1949 is the subject of "The Central Features of China's Economic Development," by Dwight H. Perkins. Before examining the empirical record, Perkins presents a brief survey of several aspects of China's economic system which differentiate it from the other developing countries. Compared to Ward's discussion, which stresses the similarities between China and the Soviet-type economies, Perkins' emphasizes several of the important adaptations the Chinese have made in the model of the Soviet-type economy to meet China's particular needs and objectives: the extensive limits to the private sector, the Chinese system of planning, and the extent to which the Chinese have been able to use their system of planning relatively effectively and efficiently in controlling production.

As for the available estimates of China's economic performance, Perkins admits that the adoption of different assumptions and methodologies in making these estimates has led to considerable disagreements and debates. Fortunately, he does not survey the various ale ternative estimates and the methodological debates they have created, choosing instead to use the available data reported by the Chinese themselves which, although limited in quantity, have been shown to be relatively VOLUME

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reliable. s Perkins uses these data to support his identification and analysis of five major areas in which the Chinese have been significantly more successful than other developing countries in achieving the objectives of economic development: (1) the rate of growth in both total and per capita output; (2) the rate of investment and changes in the sectoral composition of total output; (3) the high rate of resource mobilization; (4) the more equitable distribution of income; and (5) the limitation of dependence on external financing and foreign trade.

Perkins does not believe the important question is whether China, in a statistical sense, did better or worse than the other developing countries. Rather, before we can draw any conclusions about the relevance or transferability of China's development experience to these other countries, it is necessary to know why China did as well as it did. Thus, in the final section of his paper, Perkins presents those factors he believes responsible for China's distinctive and comparatively successful record. None of these factors, it is important to note, is characteristic of the economic system. In other words, the comparative success China has had in using its economic system to obtain the objectives of economic development is to be explained not as a consequence of the attributes essential to the Chinese economic system or model itself, but as consequences of special historical, political, and economic features of China's environment which may be very difficult to replicate in the other developing countries.

China's socialist revolution, according to Perkins, is distinguishable from most others because those who hold top-level positions, especially those in the party, have abandoned neither their belief that the base of their support comes from the rural poor nor their efforts to insure that the rural poor will benefit from China's economic development and will remain the locus of power at the local level in the countryside.

The party's continued representation and concern for the interests of the rural poor, i.e., "putting the poor in command," is a necessary explanation for many of the distinctive features of China's economic development, such as the relatively successful and smooth transition to collectivized agriculture, rationing, and nationalized industry and commerce, and its ability to mobilize labor for large-scale projects in rural areas. Many of 8 This conclusion is given very strong support by the papers presented at another conference sponsored by the Subcommittee on Research on the Chinese Economy. devoted to an evaluation of the methodological debates involved in alternative estimates of China's economic performance: the research conference on quantitative measures for China's economic output, organized and chaired by Alexander Eckstein and held in Washington, D.C., in 1975.

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China's development programs, however, did not involve obvious short-run benefits for the poor and, in some cases, even ran counter to their interests. Perkins attributes the success of these latter programs to China's tradition of "effective authoritarianism," a tradition which also helps explain its ability to carry out very large-scale and complex economic programs.

Having carried out a revolution which "put the poor in command" in a country with a rich tradition of "efficient authoritarianism" obviously provided the new Chinese leadership with many advantages not found in the other developing countries. However, the size of China's economy and its particular resource endowment, i.e., a large population and a scarce supply of cultivable land, placed serious constraints on its development policy options. According to Perkins, the leadership's necessary reactions to these economic constraints were a much more important determinant of China's autarkic development policy than the ideologically determined policy preferences of the leaders themselves.

The topics of the previous four papers are very broad in scope and the discussion of those subjects was, of necessity, restricted to rather broad generalizations and arguments which synthesized the variety of development experiences in the developing countries and in China.

The papers presented at the third session of the conference examined in greater detail particular aspects of China's development experience which have been widely acclaimed as indicators of China's unique and comparative success in economic development. Each of the papers in the third session was chosen because the quantification of these success indicators is not readily obtained, either because of the paucity of available data or because these objectives are qualitative, not quantitative, in nature.

Income equality Studies of development in other countries have concluded not only that economic growth in these countries failed to eliminate poverty but also that growth has led to a growing inequality in the size distribution of personal incomes, at least until per capita income reaches a relatively high level. The evidence for China's contrary record in this respect, however, is based on impressionistic, intuitive judgments, inasmuch as estimates for the size distribution of personal incomes are not available.

In "Regional Growth and Income Distribution: The Chinese Experience," Nicholas R. Lardy admits the 29

impossibility of obtaining direct evidence for the size distribution of personal income. He believes that the indirect evidence available does support Chinese claims for a reduction in the inequality of income distribution. The major portion of his analysis, however, is devoted to showing how the leadership has used the fiscal and planning system to redistribute investment and social service expenditures in favor of the poorer provinces.

Using estimates for provincial per capita net value added in agriculture and industry and calculating population weighted coefficients of variation, Lardy shows that regional, i.e., provincial, inequality in China in the 1950s was quite high-even higher than 路 in other countries often cited as having serious so-called "northsouth" problems. Lardy also shows that the extent of regional inequality has been gradually, but steadily, reduced over the past two decades. Inasmuch as there is evidence for a direct correlation between a growing regional inequality and a growing inequality in the size distribution of personal incomes in the other developing countries, Lardy believes that the evidence for a growing regional equality in China can be used as a first approximation of a growing equality in the size distribution of personal incomes.

Furthermore, this more equitable distribution of regional income is the direct result of the leadership's active pursuit of this objective. Lardy's detailed analysis shows that even after the decentralization reforms of 1957, the central government retained considerable control over both the fiscal system and the planning system and he explains how the leadership has used this control to achieve a significant geographical redistribution of resources. He also shows how the leadership has used this power to redistribute resources in favor of the poorer provinces and how this reallocation has resulted in a continuous reduction in the regional inequality of per capita industrial production.

Lardy's arguments also shed light on the question of the transferability of what China has achieved to the other developing countries. Inasmuch as these other countries do not have fiscal systems which facilitate the regional redistribution of investment funds, it would be difficult for them to replicate China's experience.

Furthermore, because of the much higher incremental, capital-output ratios in the poorer regions of these countries, as well as in China, Lardy believes they are unlikely to want to follow China's policy of achieving a more equitable distribution of income by means of a redistribution of investment because of the high costs, in terms of economic growth, of this policy.

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Technical and managerial skills Whereas Lardy emphasizes the role of physical capital accumulation and its redistribution as a major explanatory variable in China's record of both national and regional economic growth, "Choice of Technology and Technological Innovation in China's Economic Development," by Thomas G. Rawski, puts the emphasis on China's inherited stock of technical skills in 1949 and the development of those skills by means of learning by doing after 1949. Rawski defines technical skills very broadly; much more importance is given to management and administrative skills than to engineering techniques used in production. According to Rawski, both types of skills are acquired by experience, i.e., in learning by doing, rather than through formal education or from capital investment.

Rich in illustrative examples from Chinese sources which support his arguments, Rawski's paper first presents a chronological review of China's economic development since 1949 to show the importance and different sources of technological skills during different time periods. According to Rawski, an indication of the extent to which the Chinese had developed these skills before 1949, especially in a few large, coastal, urban centers of industrial activity, is the achievement of significant rates of industrial development and their growing ability both to compete with foreigners in a variety of markets and to adapt to sudden shifts in demand in the pre-1949 period. Despite this inheritance, the industrialization program adopted by the Chinese in the 1949-57 period relied on the large-scale, capital-intensive Soviet aid projects and on the wholesale borrowing of Soviet planning and operations procedures.

In their operation of these plants, the Chinese developed technical skills by means of learning by doing.

Yet, the obvious and well-known problems of Soviet planning and operations procedures and the lack of sufficient new supplies of skilled workers and administrative personnel to operate these plants and overcome these problems resulted in a relatively poor production performance. In part, it was their inability to operate the Soviet aid projects efficiently that led the Chinese to switch their emphasis to a reliance on their own capabilities and methods for achieving rapid increases in industrial production in the Great Leap Forward of 1958.

Unfortunately, the excessive and unrealistic output targets and the abandonment of rational standards and operating procedures placed too great a demand on the supply of critical technological skills 't hat had been accumulated over the preceding years. These factors led, VOLUME

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in part, to the failure of the Great Leap Forward campaign. The agricultural crises and the withdrawal of Soviet technical assistance at the end of the 1950s also contributed to the serious economic collapse which brought a breakdown in planning and operating procedures.

The agricultural crises created the need for sizable imports of foodstuffs, which, with the contraction of China's export capacity, seriously restricted China's imports of producers' goods and technology; a situation which, according to Rawski, forced the Chinese to adopt a self-sufficient industrial development policy and to rely upon the accumulated stock and future development of their own human technical skills. This post-1960 approach to industrialization included an emphasis on a new set of priorities: the reestablishment of central control over the allocation of resources, the restoration of authority and responsibility in the operation of industrial enterprises to those who had the necessary professional and technical skills, and the priority given to such goals as innovation and cost and quality control, i.e., an emphasis on qualitative rather than on quantitative production targets. Despite the impact of the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1960s, Rawski believes these policies have remained essential characteristics of China's industrialization effort ever since. He also believes that the successful record of China's industrial growth after 1960 shows clearly that the accumulated stock and continued development, based on learning by doing, of human technical skills has enabled industry to respond to the serious problems and demands of the 1960s with remarkable flexibility and innovation. Furthermore, the indigenous industrial production and technological base that has now been established should provide significant potential for the continued growth and technological development of China's industry in the future.

Following this chronological review, Rawski analyzes each type of industrial enterprise which makes up China's industrial base and whose integration and cooperation will be the source of this continued growth and technological development in industry. The Soviet-aid projects have provided a significant share of the expansion of output in a wide variety of producers' goods and will remain the core of China's modern, large-scale, industrial base. Although selected on the basis of rather vaguely defined anticipations of future output needs, these plants did provide for considerable import substitution at significant savings in costs. Given the level and supply of human technical skills, however, large scale and capital intensity have made it difficult for the SEPTEMBER

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Chinese to run these plants efficiently. These plants also lack flexibility and have proven difficult to adapt for the purpose of meeting changes in demands resulting from China's rapid growth and changing priorities.

The medium and small-scale industrial plants in the traditional urban industrial centers received limited investments, imports, and technical assistance during the 1950s, but came into their own in the 1960s by taking the forefront in the solution of the many problems created by changes in demand. Rawski argues that there is no single technology which is the appropriate choice for successful industrial growth.

The small-scale rural industrial plant is one of the most publicized aspects of China's contemporary industrial development. Rawski agrees with many other observers that the technology used in these plants replicates that used in the now developed countries at an earlier stage in their development. Although these plants are more labor intensive than their technology would seem to require, they employ standard machinery and equipment which is provided by the other industrial sectors in China or is produced by these plants themselves. The low capital costs and short gestation period of these plants, their utilization of local resources, their limited pressure on the overburdened transportation network, and their ability to solve local supply bottlenecks make their contribution to China's economic development, especially in agriculture, of considerable importance. Compared with this short-run contribution to the supply of industrial products in the countryside, Rawski believes these plants greatest contribution may be their long-run contribution to the supply of human technical skills. These rural, small-scale industries have introduced a process of skill acquisition and innovation based on learning by doing on a very broad scale in rural China-in fact, on a scale unparalleled in any other country in the Third World.

Taking issue with Alexander Gerschenkron's hypothesis that the "late comer" nation can accelerate economic development because of its ability to borrow technology already developed by the developed countri~s, Rawski argues that the developing countries must rely on the development of their own human technical skills, not only to absorb and utilize the foreign technology effectively, but also to adapt and develop technology to meet their own particular and ever-changing needs. The short-run costs of import substitution and learning by doing involved in China's policy of self-sufficient industrial development must therefore be compared with the outward shift in the technical capabilities frontier in China's economy which has been a result of this policy. lH

The health care delivery system

public health workers would support Chinese claims of having two or three barefoot doctors for each agricultural production brigade and one public health worker for each agricultural production team. He cites reports to the effect that 95 per cent of all illnesses in China are common illnesses, capable of being cured by paramedics; reports illustrating how paramedics have contributed to the public health of local units; and reports of declining death rates as indications that these paramedics have undoubtedly been effective in providing public health services. So much so, in fact, that the major causes of death in China are now more comparable to those in the developed countries than to those in the developing countries.

Although all health personnel are part of the socialist sector, i.e., they are not in private practice, Hu points out that China does not have socialized medicine, if by that is meant health insurance for the entire population.

Only about three-fourths of China's rural communes have a cooperative, mostly voluntary, medical insurance program with widely varying fees paid by the individual households. Inasmuch as the costs of the local health care delivery system are borne by the local unit and its members, the availability of these services is related to the wealth and level of income of the local unit.

As is true in the redistribution of income and in the development of technological capabilities, it is very difficult to estimate or quantify the success of China's efforts to provide health care services to the population.

Based on a very small sample of reports in the Chinese press on conditions in a few communes, Hu estimates the rural health care delivery system may have led to a net increase in labor effort in agriculture by as much as five million man years or by two per cent of the total value of agricultural production. Hu believes, however, that the real benefits are on the consumption side: the increased satisfaction of the peasants and the role of the health care system in the redistribution of income in favor of the rural areas.

As was argued in the case of income redistribution, Hu argues that the possibility of transferring China's health care delivery system to the other developing countries is doubtful because of the many important differences in China's economic and political system and the system of incentives which is an integral part of the health care delivery system.

There have been considerable gains in the achievement of another objective of economic development: the provision of health care services to a large segment of the population. In "Health Care Services in China's Economic Development," Teh-wei Hu provides a detailed analysis of the organization of China's health care delivery system and of how these services are distributed and financed. A major feature of this analysis is the many points at which it serves as a correction for the erroneous, but very widespread, image of China'~ health care delivery system held in the West.

China's health care system embodies a remarkable degree of local autonomy, with most of the major tasks for the supply and financing of health care services assigned to the local unit of which the recipient of these services is a member. Thus, there is a significant diversity in health care delivery among the different local units, both in the extent to which these services are available and in the extent to which their costs are borne by the recipient.

The shortage of trained personnel and medical supplies, equipment, and facilities and the significantly unequal distribution in favor of the urban areas of what is available, led the Chinese leadership, under tremendous pressure from Mao, to initiate several programs in the mid-1960s to reduce these inequalities. Hu cites and briefly examines three of these programs: the reassignment of urban medical personnel to work in the rural areas, the integration of traditional medicine and doctors with their nontraditional counterparts to increase the supply and reduce the cost of health care services, and the creation of medical colleges at most major hospitals and a reduction in the length of the curriculum to increase the supply of professional personnel.

Despite these policies, and given China's large rural population, the number of professional medical personnel per capita is still very low and its distribution still greatly favors the urban population. A redistribution of manpower, although significant, would not be enough to open the gates to health care for the bulk of the rural population. As Hu shows, it was the program of providing barefoot doctors and public health workers, i.e., paramedics, to work at the local level which accomplished this objective. This was made possible only by placing the financial burden for their training and employment on the local unit and not Linkages hetween the economic system and other on the state's unified budget. Not all local units have systems health stations or barefoot doctors. Nonetheless, Hu's It would be possible to analyze several other success estimate for the total number of barefoot doctors and indicators, but the analyses of these three alone serves 32

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to make clear the importance of China's contemporary economic and political system, its resource endowment. and its traditional social system in explaining its particular and comparatively successful record of economic growth after 1949. 4 To examine further the question of the extent to which the post-1949 economic development experience is imbedded in the Chinese environment, "Characteristics of the Chinese Economic Model Specific to the Chinese Environment," by Albert Feuerwerker, identifies and analyzes the "complementarities" over the past 25 years between various aspects of the Chinese economic model and underlying factors in the rest of the social system.

Feuerwerker makes clear that his analysis is not deterministic and that he is not interested in the original sources of these underlying factors. He also does not relate his analysis of these factors, which exert an impact on the Chinese economic model of development, to the question of the possibility of transferring that model to the other developing countries. 'W hile he agrees that any of these particular linkages between the economy and the rest of the social system may be found to exist in one or more of the other developing countries, i.e. , they are not unique to China, he argues that the interrelationships among the linkages he identifies and analyzes is unique to China's experience-which makes the replication of that experience in the other developing countries problematical at best.

The analysis by Feuerwerker of the various linkages between the economy and the rest of China's social system stresses the extent to which its development experience ' is embedded in the Chinese geographical, historical, cultural, social, and political environment.

The specific linkages he examines are the complementarities between the Chinese economic model (i.e., its development policies and strategies), and the natural environment, the political system, the value system, the social system (narrowly defined), and the external world. Providing several illustrations to support his 'A fourth paper. devoted to an analysis of a frequently cited success indicator of post-1949 China's economic development effort. was " Population Control in China" l>y Charles Robert Roll. Jr. Roll's analysis concentrates on the question of rural-urban migration. Although he recognizes the extensive institutional controls and policies the leadership has implemented to control rural-url>an migration. i.e .â&#x20AC;˘ the movement of labor is not free. Roll adopts the Todaro model-a model of migration developed to explain rural-urban migration in economies with free markets and free labor mobility-to identify the economic determinants of the pressures for rural-urban migration in China. On the bases of the lack of jobs in the cities. the more equitable distribution of income. and his own estimates which show that the average income differential between the two sectors is relatively small. Roll argues that the relatively low rate of rural-urban migration in China can be explained by these factors rather than by government controls.

SEPTEMBER

1977

argument, Feuerwerker concludes that its development policies and strategies have been dictated more by the need to meet the specific realities of China's physical and resource environment (surplus labor and scarce cultivatable land) than by the leadership's ideological preferences.

Given these important and pressing constraints on this model of economic development, Feuerwerker then analyzes the linkages between the model and the political system, arguing that one essential feature of the Chinese model is the precedence of political values and objectives over narrowly defined economic objectives: "putting politics in command." The Chinese strategy of development involves considerable institutional change, which in turn involves (1) political development to create a national outlook and replace traditional values and (2) institutional changes to mobilize and utilizeactual and potential economic surpluses. Feuerwerker also argues that this model of economic developmentin which political objectives often take precedence and may even be at the expense of short-run increases in economic olltput-was a necessary, rational, and effective strategy. Mao and the Thoughts of Mao obviously played a crucial role in the effort to "put politics in command" of China's economic development. Confucianism has not been destroyed by the Chinese Revolution in the 19th and 20th centuries, i.e., it has not been a fundamental social revolution, and the deep hold of Confucianism on the Chinese people has had to be replaced by a new commitment to Mao and Maoism if the changes in institutions and values, which were an essential part of the Chinese model of development, were to take root.

In its attempt to "put politics in command," especially its attempt to transform the consciousness of the people, the leadership has been able to draw upon traditions in the Chinese value system. Feuerwerker argues that the contemporary Maoist belief in the malleability of man is a Marxist import, or is Mao's reininterpretation of Marx, not a traditional Confucian concept. On the other hand, the state did have the traditional role of shaping the value content of man's consciousness by establishing what is to be taught and learned. Thus, the post-1949 leadership was better able to utilize the educational system for the sole purpose of teaching skills required for development and Maoist values for changing the superstructure.

Unlike that of most other developing societies, China's premodern society had many traits and values conducive to economic growth, especially the social system itself, narrowly defined. The traditional social system had accumulated considerable experience with complex organizations. Furthermore, unlike that in most other 33

developing countries (Myrdal's "'soft" states), the traditional social system was not destroyed by the Chinese Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries and the foreign expansion into Asia brought with it no significant disruption of the traditional village social structure. Thus, the new leadership was able to replace the traditional elite classes in the local areas and introduce such programs as cooperative agriculture on the basis of the natural social units of the past-units that were highly disciplined and integrated.

The final linkage examined by Feuerwerker is that between the Chinese economy and the external world, a linkage which serves as a constraint on China's economic development strategy. 'While a social revolution was not an important ingredient in the Chinese Revolution, modern Chinese nationalism was, and anti-imperialism is an imperative for any legitimate leader in modern China. Although the Chinese were forced to rely on the transfer of Soviet goods and technical advice in the 1950s, this large-scale presence and face-to-face encounter with foreigners came to an end abruptly in 1960. A policy of isolating the Chinese from these face-to-face encounters with foreigners has been in force ever since. Technology is obtained from abroad, but by importing goods and books, not people. Although the motivation for this policy is to isolate the consciousness of the Chinese population from the pernicious effects of foreigners, it has also reduced the need to admit dependence on the foreigner. Equally important, however, the experiences of the Chinese during the 1950s made them realize the extent to which many characteristics of foreign models of economic development were integrated with those foreign environments and, therefore, were not transferable to China.

Conclusions Three general themes emerged in the papers presented at the conference: (1) Since 1949, the Chinese have achieved a distinctive and comparatively favorable record of economic development; (2) That record is strongly influenced by and integrated with particular characteristics of the Chinese environment; the entire Chinese social system, including its political system; China's geography and resource endowment; and China's historical evolution; and (3) Because of this interdependency, the direct transfer of China's development experience to the other developing countries is not possible.

The first two conclusions are derived from the explicit discussions of these subjects in the papers presented at the conference; the last conclusion and analysis is a logical deduction presented as a comment or intuitive judgment by the various authors. This topic was not investigated in any detail in any of the papers. 5 Accordingly, the editor of the conference volume is preparing a concluding chapter which will directly address the question of "the transferability of the Chinese model."

o 5 John G. Gurley examined several aspects of the question in a very interesting paper, "Is the Chinese Model Diffusible?" Gurley first presented a theory of cultural diffusion and went on to argue that transferability depends on the similarity of modes of production.

The remaining sections of Gurley's discussion present a somewhat idealized model of China's post¡1949 model of economic development and the possibility of transferring this model, with or without a revolution. He concludes that the transfer of the Chinese model is more likely to happen with a revolution. Gurley has published his paper as the final chapter in his book, China's EconolllY and the Maoist Strategy (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1976).

The Study of South Asian Conceptual Systems

by Stanley

THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON SOUTH ASIA has embarked upon an enterprise that creates unusual opportunities for integrating regional and general social science issues.

A recent article in Items 1 describes the beginnings of this venture, noting the committee's focus on a general â&#x20AC;˘ The author. who serves with the Congressional Research Service, Librar)" of Congress. is chairman of the Joint Committee on South Asia. The other members of the committee are Marc Galanter, Eugene F. Irschick. McKim ;\Iarriott, Michelle n. McAlpin, Barbara D. Metcalf, Karl H . Potter, and A. K. Ramanujan; staff, David L. Szanton.

1 David L. Szanton , "South and Southeast Asia : New Concerns of the Council," Items 30:2 Oune 1976), pages 13-17.

34

J.

Heginbothamf<

intellectual approach involving the exploration of aspects of South Asian conceptual systems, "i.e., the tools or frames of thought, or the structures of ideas, which define, order, and create meaning in individual and social perceptions in South Asia." These comments update this earlier report and describe some of the specific activities the Joint Committee has undertaken in pursuit of its goals.

One of the critical functions of area studies is to challenge the theoretical formulations of social scientists with data that raise questions about the value, adequacy, VOLUME

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and precision of those formulations. This can be doneand distressingly often is-from a perspective of intolerance. It can also be done, however, from an awareness of the important contributions that comparativelyinformed social science disciplines and vigorous area studies traditions can make to each other when they are in effective contact and maintain a creative balance and tension.

In its deliberations during 1975 and 1976, the committee identified a number of areas in which social science insights, when applied to situations in South Asia, were either insufficiently precise to be of great value or led to faulty approaches and inferences. For example, several members were concerned that, in its reliance on assumptions about profit-maximizing behavior, much conventional economic analysis fails to give adequate weight to a pervasive and economically rational concern among South Asian agriculturalists for maintaining minimal security. The argument is not that South Asian farmers are other-wordly and disinterested in profit, but rather that they are likely to pursue risktaking, profit-maximizing behavior only when minimal security is first assured-often through social and political institutions that function, in effect, as insurance mechanisms. In some sense, such a proviso might apply to Western farmers as well. However, the great fluctuations in productivity from year to year, largely the result of highly variable monsoons, and the proximity to bare subsistence levels at which South Asian agriculturalists must operate, mean that the proviso is far more salient in shaping the behavior of South Asian farmers.

Minimal security concerns-assurance that one's family will have adequate food to avoid severe malnutrition or starvation-rarely impinge on farm decision making in the West.

The committee's focus on South Asian perceptions of the world reflects a concern that social scientists, in formulating and utilizing analytic categories, logical linkages, and models, keep in mind that the people of the region often think in very different categories, use very different logical linkages, and assume distinctive models of human behavior. It further reflects the view that these categories, logical linkages, and models ·have significant influences on behavior.

As suggested by the reference to social and political insurance mechanisms above, the committee's interests start with, but go well beyond, conceptual systems.

It is in fact concerned with the broad range of conditions and circumstances in the subcontinent that contribute to the creation and development of distinctive social, economic, political, religious, and cultural institutions.

SEPTEMBER

1977

The effort is to join disciplinary and regional studies insights for an improved understanding of the region, but the individual members of the committee vary greatly in their approaches. Some work with historical records of the 18th and 19th century; others with primary field data, early South Asian religious texts, or art forms such as folk tales. Some members find it most productive to begin their explorations from the perspective of a specific South Asian concept; others use Western or disciplinary categories to define the scope of their enquiries. Some focus on conceptions that individuals have and proceed to determine how they mayor may not influence behavior; others concentrate on behavior patterns and consider conceptual systems as possible sources of explanation for that behavior.

Although tied together by a common interest in South Asian conceptual systems, the diverse approaches of the committee members are reflected in the form and substance of the several workshop and seminar projects now under way: • One project, on political authority, draws on historical data to examine changing concepts, structures, and linkages of authority at the village and regional level.

• Another project will explore means of improving the collection and analysis of South Asian folklore, with the aim of increasing the amount of useful cultural material that can be extracted from such data.

• A project on South Asian concepts of the person, drawing on a variety of source materials, has direct implications both for how South Asians experience their own lives and for the nature of interpersonal relations in the region.

• In a related project, the concept of karma, the mechanisms by which it operates, and the situations in which it is employed are being explored in both historical and contemporary South Asia.

• The committee's concern with South Asian responses to risk and uncertainty has led to a project examining the role and interaction of economic and social institutions, e.g., marriage practices, migration patterns, religious institutions, in providing relative security to the region's farm families.

• The range of issues in economic behavior and institutions deserving scholarly attention goes well beyond the project on risk and uncertainty. The committee is therefore exploring the possibility of creating a special subcommittee on the South Asian political economy. A three-day planning meeting in June 1977 brought together historians, economists, anthropologists, and political scientists from South Asia, the United Kingdom, and the United States to discuss issues for priority at35

tention. A consensus emerged to focus primarily on a range of questions surrounding microlevel decision making, and a charter for such a subcommittee is now being drafted.

Through these projects-which will involve workshops, conferences, the commissioning of bibliographic essays, field research, and the sponsorship of edited volumes-the committee is attempting to encourage scholars to examine important understudied issues in

South Asian society and culture. Simultaneously, aware that there are many important research topics well beyond the bounds of these issues, the committee is also maintaining its annual grants competition to assure the possibility of support for the widest possible range of proposals and perspectives. By carefully balancing the sponsored projects and the open grants competition the committee hopes to stimulate thoughtful new research at the juncture of disciplinary and regional studies. 0

Fellowships and Grants Listed here are the names, affiliations, and topics of individuals who were awarded fellowships or grants by two joint Committees during the past few months. This listing completes the roster of recipients that was begun in the March/june 1977 issue of Items) pages 16-23.

The fellowship and grant programs of the Council and of the American Council of Learned Societies are supported by funds received from foundations and other funding agencies. The programs change somewhat every year, and scholars interested either in predoctoral fellowships for dissertation research abroad or postdoctoral grants for individual or collaborative research should write to either or both Councils for copies of the brochures that describe their 1977-78 fellowship and grants program. (Each Council publishes a brochure describing the programs it administers.) The address of the American Council of Learned Societies is 345 East 46th Street, New York, New York 10017.

GRANTS FOR EAST EUROPEAN STUDIES The joint Committee on Eastern Europe-sponsored jointly by the Council and the American Council of Learned Societies-has announced the awarding of postdoctoral grants to the following individuals: Janet Byron, assistant professor of linguistics, Cleveland State University: The use of two standard dialects among the Albanians of Yugoslavia Linda Degh, professor of folklore, Indiana University: The image of the Old Country: Ethnicity of Hungarian-Americans Robert J. Donia, lecturer in Balkan and East European history, University of Michigan: Nationalism in the South Slav lands John O. Iatrides, professor of political science, Southern Connecticut State College: The United States and Greece, 1945-1955 Kenneth Jowitt, associate professor of political science, University of California, Berkeley: Party domination and national integration in Communist regimes John J. Kulczycki, senior research fellow, Institute on East Central Europe, Columbia University: Polish emigration 36

in Western Germany and France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries Nicholas P. Lovrich, assistant professor of political science, DePauw University: Return to the homeland of Yugoslav-Americans David W. Paul, assistant professor of political science, University of Washington: Social backgrounds to the development of Slovak politics, 1890-1914 Richard D. Portes, professor of economics, University of London: The macroeconomics of centrally planned economies Zdenek Salzmann, professor of anthropology, University of Massachusetts: Czech-speaking villages in the Southeastern Romanian Banat Alexander Stephan, assistant professor of German, University of California, Los Angeles: The impact of the "scientific and technical revolution" on GDR literature of the 1960's David.T. Welsh. professor of Slavic languages and literatures, University of Michigan: The works of Juliusz Slowacki Zdenko Zlatar. visiting assistant professor of history. University of Illinois. Chicago Circle: Origins of Pan-Slavism.

1590-1640 .

Michael Zurowski. member. Institute of Historical Research, University of London : Origins of the Cold War: Britain and the climax of the Polish question The following persons have been awarded grants for the study of East European languages: Albanian

Cynthia Keesan, graduate student, Slavic linguistics, University of Michigan Leonard Newmark, professor of linguistics, University of California, San Diego Bulga1'ian

Mary E. McCormack, graduate student, Slavic languages, Yale University Czech

Michael Beckerman, graduate student, musicology, Columbia University John P. Farrell, associate professor of economics, Oregon State University r Carl S. Horne, graduate student, history, Indiana University Debra N. Oechsler, graduate student, Slavic languages, Brown University Macedonian

Kenneth Naylor, prof9sor of Slavic linguistics, Ohio State University VOLUME

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Modem C"eek Theophilus C. P,rousis, graduate student, history, University of Minnesota Polish Emily R. Klenin, assistant professor of Slavic languages, Harvard University James N. Roney, graduate student, Slavic languages, Ohio State University Allen A. Terhaar, graduate student, agricultural economics, University of Wisconsin Mary E. Theis, graduate student, comparative literature, University of Illinois Romanian Theodore K. Haldeman, graduate student, Romance linguistics, University of Michigan Serbo-Croatian Frank A. Dubinskas, graduate student, anthropology, Stanford University GRANTS FOR SOVIET STUDIES The Joint Committee on Soviet Studies-sponsored jointly by the Council and the American Council of Learned Societies-has announced the awarding of postdoctoral grants to the following individuals:

Steven J. Broyde, assistant professor of Russian, Amherst College: The later poetry of Osip Mandelstam Edythe C. Haber, visiting assistant professor of Russian, Brandeis University: The narrative prose of Mikhail Bulgakov Elizabeth Henderson, assistant professor of Russian, Boston University: The political art of the Left Front, 1917-1930 Christopher D. Jones, assistant professor of political science, Marquette University: Soviet hegemony in East Europe Aron J. Katsenelinboigen, visiting lecturer in economics, University of Pennsylvania: Vertical and horizontal mechanisms in the Soviet economy Diane P. Koenker, assistant professor of history, Temple University: The role of Moscow's urban working classes in the 1917 Revolution Arno Liivak, professor of law, Rutgers University: The Estonian Workers Commune, 1917-1919 Michael P. Sacks, assistant professor of sociology, Trinity College: The influence of age, sex and nationality on labor force composition, 1939-1970 Peter H. Solomon, Jr., associate professor of political economy, University of Toronto: The politics of Soviet penal policy, 1925-1932 Dina R. Spechler, lecturer in political science, Tel Aviv University: The politics of permitted dissent

New Publications from Council activities and committee projects

~ina's

Energy Policies and Resource Development, prepared by Thomas Fin-

gar with the assistance of David Bachman.

A report of a seminar held at Stanford University, June 2-3, 1976, cosponsored by the Joint Committee on Contemporary China and the Rockefeller Foundation.

This seminar was designed to bring together individuals with different expertise but a common interest in China's energy and development policies and their domestic and international implications.

The report suggests possible means by which scientists, engineers, social scientists, and representatives from government and industry might improve our understanding of contemporary China.

The participants were Maylin Dittmore, Lawrence Livermore Laboratories; Thomas Fingar, U.S.-China Relations Program, Stanford University; Richard Garwin. T. J. Watson Research Center, International Business Machines Corporation; Randall Hardy, Federal Energy Administration; Lawrence Lau, Stanford SEPTEMBER 1977

j University, James Leckie, Stanford University; John W. Lewis, Stanford Univer路 sity; Victor H. Li. Stanford University; H. C. Ling, Hoover Institution; Sullivan Marsden, Stanford University; Necmettin Mungan, University of Calgary; Douglas P. Murray, U.S.-China Relations Program, Stanford University; James Nickum, San Jose State University; Robert C. North. Stanford University; Norman Pruvost, Lawrence Livermore Laboratories; Bruce Reynolds. Union College; Vaclav Smil, University of Manitoba; Chauncey Starr, Electric Power Research Institute (Pa~o Alto); Richard P. Suttmeier, Hamilton College; Maurice Terman, Office of International Geography, U.S. Geological Survey; K. P. Wang, U.S. Bureau of Mines; Franklin Weinstein, U.S.-Japan Relations Project, Stanford University; Jan路Olaf WiIIums, Saga Petroleum AS 8c Co.; and Kim Woodard, Stanford University.

The report is available from the U.S.China Relations Program, Building 160, Room 162-J, Stanford University, for $1.00.

Current Status of East Asian Collections in American Libraries, 1974-75, by

Tsuen-Hsuin Tsien. Product of a survey cosponsored by the Task Force on Libraries and Research Materials of the Committee on Studies of Chinese Civilization (American Council of Learned Soci路 eties), the Joint Committee on Contem路 porary China (American Council of Learned Societies and Social Science Research Council), and the Committee on East Asian Libraries of the Association for Asian Studies. Published by and available from the Center for Chinese Research Materials, Association of Research Libraries, 1527 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. June 1976.

67 pages.

./ The City in Late Imperial China, edited

by G. William Skinner. Papers from a conference sponsored by the Subcommittee on Research on Chinese Society of the Joint Committee on Contemporary China, August-September, 1968. Stanford Un i37

versity Press, 1977. 820 pages + xvii (including 35 maps and 22 plates). $35.00.

The 20 essays in this volume examine urban development in imperial China; the relationships between urban and rural Chinese society; and urban social structure in late imperial China.

Against an historical setting going as far back as the first legendary Chou Dynasty city (1352 B.C.), the authors provide both broad overviews and specific case studies of the evolution of Chinese cities through the end of the last imperial dynasty (1911). The cosmology of the Chinese city; the transformation of Nanking, 1350-1400; cities and the hierarchy of local systems; the morphology of walled capitals; and the social structure of a 19th century Taiwanese walled city are a few examples of the breadth of this volume of interpretive essays.

In addition to the editor other contributors to the volume are: Hugh D. R. Baker, University of London; Sen-Dou Chang. University of Hawaii; Donald R. DeGlopper, Cornell University; Mark Elvin, Oxford University; Stephan Feuchtwang, City University, London; Peter J. Golas, University of Denver; Tilemann Grimm, Universit,. of Tiibingen; Harry J. Lamley, University of Hawaii; F. W. Mote, Princeton University; Kristofer M. Schipper, Ecole Pratique des Haute Etudes; Yoshinobu Shiba, Tokyo University; G. William Skinner, Stanford University; Sybille Van Der Sprenkel, University of Leeds; John R. Watt, Windham College; Arthur F. Wright, Yale University.

Japanese Language Studies in the United States. A report of the Subcommittee on Japanese Language Training Study of the Joint Committee on Japanese Studies of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies. New York: Social Science Research Council, 1976. 227 pages.

In 1971, the Joint Committee on Japanese Studies appointed a Subcommittee on Japanese Language Training Study to look into the problem of Japanese language training for specialists: to discover what was most needed and how it might best be supplied. The major task of the subcommittee, with funding from the Ford Foundation, was to identify language training needs as seen from the point of view of the scholarly community, and to suggest more efficient means of meeting 38

them on the basis of currently available training resources.

This is the full report of the subcommittee, containing a statement of its major findings as well as its recommendations to the field.

j Japan in the Muromaehi Age, edited by John Whitney Hall and Toyoda Takeshi, with the assistance of Kanai Madoka and Richard Staubitz. Papers from a conference sponsored by the Joint Committee on Japanese Studies. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1977. xv + 376 pages.

This volume is the product of a binational conference held in the summer of 1973 in Kyoto, Japan, which brought together for the first time Japanese and American specialists on the Muromachi age (1334-1573). The conference was held in the dramatic setting of Sokokuji, the temple most closely identified with the Muromachi shogunate in Kyoto, and elicited from a variety of disciplines convincing evidence that the Muromachi period in Japanese history must be significantly reconsidered.

The Muromachi era had previously been looked upon as a time of transition -an interlude between a more important classical era, as epitomized in the Heian period, and a more vigorous early modern age, as exemplified in the Tokugawa period. Recent work has shown, however, that in the spheres of political organization and social tradition, as well as in the cultural sphere, the Muromachi age gave rise to new patterns which became important elements in a distinctly Japanese historical tradition. Indeed, many of the dominant traditions of political organization and religious and artistic expression which were to persist up to the modern era took shape during this time.

The conference's assessment of this period resulted in a new discovery of continuity and vigor in political and social institutions, a new-found element of popular culture which demanded respect, and a new historical periodization.

In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume are Akamatsu Toshihide, Otani University; George Elison, Indiana University; Kenneth A. Grossberg, Harvard University; Hayashiya Tatsusaburo, Kyoto University; Ito Teiji, Kogakuin University; Kawai Masaharu, Hiroshima University; Donald Keene, Columbia University; Cornelius J. Kiley,

Villanova University; Kuwayama Konen, University of Tokyo; Miyagawa Mitsuru, osaka Kyoiku University; V. Dixon Morris, University" of Hawaii; Nagahara Keiji, Hitotsubashi University; Paul Novograd, Columbia University; John M. Rosenfield, Harvard University; Barbara Ruch, University of Pennsylvania; Robert Sakai, University of Hawaii; Sato Shin'ichi, University of Tokyo; Sugiyama Hiroshi, Komozawa University; Tanaka Takeo, University of Tokyo; H. Paul Varley, Columbia University; Stanley Weinstein, Yale University; Kozo Yamamura, University of Washington; and Philip Yampolsky, Columbia University.

Modern Chinese Literature in the May Fourth Era, edited by Merle Goldman.

Papers from a conference sponsored by the Joint Committee on Contemporary China, August 1974. Harvard University Press, 1977. 464 pages + xiii. SI5.00.

The 17 essays in this volume examine the cultural movement in China in the early decades of the 20th century which, as Merle Goldman writes, culminated "in a literary flowering that was one of the most creative and brilliant episodes in modern Chinese history." The authors explore the development of a modern literature which grew out of the efforts by Chinese intellectuals to throw off the weight of Confucian tradition and to integrate China into the modern world. This new literature not only absorbed the main trends of Western culture, but often unconsciously related it to the Chinese tradition. Through their writings, these intellectuals sought modernity and political independence for their country.

In addition to the editor, the contributors to the volume are John Berninghausen, Middlebury College; Cyril Birch, University of California, Berkeley; Yushih Chen, Hunter College, City University of New York; Ching-mao Cheng, University of Massachusetts; Milena Dolezelova-Velingerova, University of Toronto; Irene Eber, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Michael Egan, University of Toronto; Yi-tsi M. Feuerwerker, Universityof Michigan; Douwe W. Fokkema, Univeristy of Utrecht; Leo Ou-fan Lee, Indiana University; Perry Link, Princeton University; Bonnie S. McDougall, Harvard University; Harriet C. Mills, University of Michigan; Paul Pickowia, University of California, San Diego; Ezra F. Vogel, Harvard University; and Ellen Widmer, Harvard University.

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The Foreilfn POliCT 01 Modern lapan, edited by Robert A. Scalapino. Product of a conference sponsored by the Joint Committee on Japanese Studies. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1977. xix+426 pages.

This volume grew out of a conference on Japanese foreign policy held on Kauai, Hawaii in January 1974. Seventeen scholars-almost equally divided between Japanese and Americans-met to discuss both the major issues or aspects of foreign policy and the central institutions involved in the policy-making process. Some participants employed the case-study approach in their papers; others wrote as generalists.

The papers in the volume are grouped according to four major themes, including decision making and the foreign-policy process, the role of public and private interests in foreign policy, economics and foreign policy, and security issues. There are detailed studies of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, the Diet and foreign policy, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, and the Self-Defense Forces, in addition to case studies of the proposed Japanese exploration of the Tyumen oil fields in Siberia and the role of the business community in the normalization of relations with the People's Republic of China in 1972. Also included are more general discussions of the style of Japanese diplomatic negotiations, Japanese public opinion on foreign policy issues, the changing international economic environment confronting Japan, and the rea路 sons for japan's low profile in security matters. The final section of the book attempts a general overview, featuring both historical and modern perspectives.

In addition to the editor, the contributors to the volume are Hans H. Baerwald, Michael K. Blaker, Gerald L. Curtis, Haruhiro Fukui, Donald C. Hellmann, Chalmers Johnson, Masataka Kosaka, Makato Momoi, Sadako Ogata, Edwin O. Reischauer, Seizaburo Sato, Gary R. Saxonhouse, and Akio Watanabe.

Law and Politics in China's Foreign Trade, edited by Victor H. Li. Product of a conference sponsored by the former Subcommittee on Chinese Law, Joint Committee on Contemporary China, September IS-17, 1971. Seattle: University of Washington Press, June 1977. 467 pages. $20.00_ The conference on which this volume is based was jointly sponsored by the Joint Committee and Southern Illinois SEPTEMBER 1977

University; it was held at the Contemporary China Institute, School of Oriental and Mrican Studies, University of London. In addition to a number of members of the subcommittee and the Contemporary China Institute, about twenty-nine scholars, diplomats, and business exe~u颅 tives from Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Japan, and the United States attended the five-day session.

Part I deals with the Chinese trade experiences of individual countries, including Japan, West Germany, Denmark, Italy, Russia, the United States, and Hong Kong. Part II describes methods and controls of trade. The various topics covered in this part include discussions of maritime laws and practices; the problem of personal security of businessmen and trade representatives; China's foreign trade apparatus; banking practices; an analysis of state control of trade after Liberation; and a concluding chapter that places "China trade" in historical perspective with an account of the old Canton system of foreign trade. The appendixes contain copies of agreements and regulations, contracts, and insurance forms.

Social Influence and Social Change, by Serge Moscovici. London, New York, and San Francisco: Academic Press, 1976. 2S9 pages. Number 10 in the European Monographs in Social Psychology. Based in part on a conference on the social influence of minorities, held near Hanover, New Hampshire, August 14-September I, 1971, sponsored by the former Committee on Transnational Social Psychology.

The psychological model of social influence that is now widely accepted may be characterized as functionalist. According to this viewpoint, formal or informal social systems, on the one hand, and the environment, on the other, are considered as given and predetermined with respect to the individual and the group. Social roles, statuses, and psychological resources are defined for each member before any interaction takes place, and behaviors are seen as merely translating and representing these roles, statuses, and psychological resources. The function of behavior on the part of the individual or group is to ensure adjustment to the system or the environment. Hence, deviance represents failure to adapt to the system, an interruption of its orderly progress, a

lack of information or resources in relation to the environment.

From this perspective, normality represents a state of adaptation to the system; the process of social influence has as its object the reduction of deviance and the facilitation of a return to normal. The implication is that the actions of those who go along with the norm are functional and adaptive for the group, while those who deviate from or go against the norm are seen as dysfunctional and maladaptive for the group.

Moscovici challenges this perspective by noting that it has been fashioned and considered from the point of view of the majority, authority, and social control.

In its place, he suggests an orientation towards a psychology of social influence that is also a psychology of innovation, of acting on and in relation to the group; a psychology fashioned from the points of view of the minority, the deviant, and social change. In order to achieve this, he outlines a framework or model of social behavior that interprets a disinclination to adapt not so much as a form of deviance but as the essential pathway to innovation and social development.

The book is the outgrowth of a Council conference on the social influence of minorities, which met under the auspices of Dartmouth College. The idea of holding the conference had been advanced by the Committee on Transnational Social Psychology; the conference was supported by a grant to the Council from the National Science Foundation. The participants were Jack Brehm, Duke University; Harold H. Kelley, University of California, Los Angeles; Charles Kiesler, American Psychological Association (Washington, D.C.); Helmuth Lamm, University of Mannheim; John Lanzetta, Dartmouth College; Serge Moscovici, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris); Robert Ziller, University of Florida; and Ricardo Zuniga.

Catholic University (Santiago).

Latin America: A Guide to Economic History, 1830-1930, edited by Roberto Cort~s Conde and Stanley J. Stein. A publication sponsored by the Joint Committee on Latin American Studies and the Latin American Council of the Social Sciences (CLASCO). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977. 685 pages. $S5.00.

Growing out of ten years of intense activity by the Joint Committee and then its Subcommittee on Economic History S9

(1968-77), this is an extensive bibliography of the economic history of Latin America in the century that followed the colonial era. After the two-part introductory essay by the editors-Robert Cortes Conde is senior researcher at the Torcuato di Tell a Institute, Buenos Aires, and Stanley J. Stein is professor of history at Princeton University-and an initial general bibliography, there are interpretive essays and 4500 annotated entries for the sources and works on six countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru.

The six country essays give attention both to theoretical and historical perspectives. The national bibliographies following each essay include descriptive and quantitative sources, but the stress is on quantitative and often serial materials.

The extensive search for quantitative materials basic to economic history has resulted in the identification of significant new data sources. Each of the national bibliographies includes voluminous information on the holdings of national, regional, and local archives arranged under the following subject headings: demography, manpower, and living conditions; structures and institutions; macroeconomic growth and fluctuations; foreign trade and investment; regional economy; agriculture and ranching; industry: factory and artisan; extractive industry; transport, public utilities, and services.

The volume deserves special recognition as a pioneering effort in international collaboration. The section on Argentina was prepared by Tulio Halperin Donghi, University of California, Berkeley; on

Brazil by Nicia Villela Luz, University of Sao Paulo; on Chile by Osvaldo Sunkel and Carmen Cariola, both of the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex; on Colombia by William Paul McGreevey, Smithsonian Institution; on Mexico by Enrique Florescano, National Institute of Anthropology and History (Mexico City); and on Peru by Shane J. Hunt, Boston University, and Pablo Macera, University of San Marcos (Lima).

The three North American and seven Latin American contributors have written in their native languages. Thus, three of the interpretive essays are in Spanish (on Argentina, Chile, and Mexico), one-with two authors-is partly in Spanish and partly in English (on Peru), one in Eng. lish (on Colombia), and one in Portuguese (on Brazil).

SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL 605

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Incorporated in the State of Illinois, December 27, 1924, for the purpose of advancing research in the social sciences

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Directors, 1977-78; IRMA E. ADELMAN, BRIAN L. BERRY, PETER B. DEWS, ROBERT EISNER, JACOB J. FELDMAN, CLIFFORD GEERTZ, PHILIP W. JACKSON, HAROLD H. KELLEY, FRA!l:KLIN \V. KNIGHT, GERALD H. KRAMER, WILLIAM H. KlI.USKAL, OTTO N. LARSEN, LEON LIPSON, CORA BAGLEY MAlUlETT, HERBERT MCCLOSKY, MURRAY G. MURPHEY, PAUL H. MUSSE!I:, GUY H. ORCUTT, SAMUEL C. PATTERSON, ALICE S. ROSSI, PEGGY R. SANDAY, ELEANOR BER!l:ERT SHELDON, ALBERT J. STUNKARD, STEPHEN A . THER!I:STROM Officers and Staff: ELEANOR BERNERT SHELDON, President; DAVID L. SILU, Executive Associate; RONALD P. ABELES, RONALD AQUA, ALVIA Y. BRANCH, ROBERT A. GATES, MARTHA A. GEPHART, LoUIS WOLF GOODMAN, ROBERTA BALSTAD MILLER, ROWLAND L. MITCHELL, JR., ROBERT PARKE, PETER B. READ, DAVID SEIDMAN, DAVID L. SZANTON; MARTHA W. FORMAN, Assistant Treasurer; NANCY L. CARMICHAEL, Librarian

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